


Thirteen Months Plus One

by aceofhearts88



Series: Post Civil War Oneshots [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, DID I MENTION FREAKING SPOILERS, DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE, SPOILERS FOR MID CREDIT SCENE, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 05:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6691672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofhearts88/pseuds/aceofhearts88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR! SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE UNTIL THE VERY END! I CANNOT REPEAT IT ENOUGH! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILERED!</p><p>SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!</p><p>T'Challa falls in love with a man while said man isn't really there. A man he swore to protect. A man he wants to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirteen Months Plus One

**Author's Note:**

> LAST FREAKING CHANCE!  
> SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AND ESPECIALLY THE MID CREDIT SCENE!  
> GO FURTHER THAN THIS AND YOU'LL BE SPOILERED!

Twelve hours after Bucky got frozen:

"What are you going to do now?" T'Challa's voice had Steve look up from where he had been staring out at the sunset, leaning against the railing of one of the palast balconies. He felt the other man approach, quietly.  
"Travel. Become a ghost, see places, try to find out what it is I want now." Steve answered, almost whispering, "See if there is any happiness I can find, knowing that Bucky is safe now...Sam wants to see the Chinese Wall, the Taj Mahal."

"Beautiful places." T'Challa agreed and came to stand next to him, "You should give yourself a chance to heal, too. Like you said, Bucky is safe, he is getting the best care in the world. My sister will take care of Wanda Maximoff, and Romanov and Barton...you told me yourself that they know from experience how to start anew. Mister Lang is back with his family. You deserve to think about yourself for a little while."

"You will call me, if anything happens? With Bucky, with Wanda?"

"The moment I know, you will know, too. I promise, Steve." T'Challa said and Steve let out a breath, smiling then when he heard the new pair of footsteps step outside.  
"I booked us plane tickets to Hong Kong." Samm announced with a grin that already looked a little less tired and Steve smiled back at him once he had turned, "That'll give us a good place to start. Backpacks are packed, fake papers done. We can start right tomorrow...if you want."

"I do. I made a promise to Bucky, to not sit around and wait, but live a life, make memories, find stories I can tell him once he is back with me." Steve explained and both other men smiled, knowing how difficult it must be, but then Sam smirked and pulled out something from behind his back.  
"That's great, man, because Tokomi gave me a book." Sam announced and Steve raised an eyebrow at him, "Yeah, see here, 1000 places you need to see before you die."

T'Challa started laughing as Steve felt a twitch go through him, before he groaned and let his head fall forward, but the grin on Sam's face and the returned glimmer of something resembling hope in his eyes, it filled Steve's heart with warmth again. Enough warmth to smile and straighten his spine again.

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

\--

A month after Bucky got frozen:

"C, r, e, e, p, y." Naomi spoke out each letter with extra care as she flittered into the room, nature of a hurricane as always, sending an empty bottle of water flying off the table as she took a corner too quick, "Creepy, also weird and strange and taking stalker to whole new extremes. Also cute and heartbreakingly adorable." She cooed in the end and T'Challa sighed and raised his head despite all of his instincts screaming at him to not feed her ego anymore.

But little cousins who were basically little sisters were a weakness he couldn't ignore.

"How great to see you, too, Naomi, how was your trip to South Africa?" He asked and set the report he had been reading in the armchair by the windows to the side.  
"Nice, quiet, fun. I like the Maximoff girl, Shuri is good for her." Naomi told him and pulled up a chair to plop down right in front of him, smirking, grinning, full of bubbly energy, just like he knew her, "But don't change the subject, dear cousin. What are you doing here, you creepy little lurker?" He kicked out a foot for her wording, huffing and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm working," he tried to deadpan but Naomi snorted, not buying it for a second and T'Challa knew it had sounded as pathetic an excuse as it had probably been. He had an office for working and he was slowly getting used to it being his office, no longer his father's. Fact was, he liked the silence, he liked the peacefulness in the room at the end of the long corridor of the medical wing in the palace.

The room where Bucky Barnes was sleeping in his cryo chamber.

Looking more at ease and more at peace than T'Challa had seen him in the days during the war or even in the few days he had spent with Steve Rogers in Wakanda before the procedure.

And that thought hurt.

He had turned his eyes onto the man in his frozen state again while thinking and he could see Naomi following his line of sight now.  
"You know...I'm aware it's still not gotten in your head, but wanting to protect the people we care about does not necessarily translate to lurking around them at all times." Naomi said, quietly this time, more serious and T'Challa turned his head to look at her, how her dark eyes looked back at him, seemingly knowing things already that he didn't yet.

"I know how to take a step back. I let you go, alone to South Africa." He pointed out and Naomi deadpanned at him.  
"To your sister, whose protection detail is bigger than your own nowadays. I know you want to protect us, but we're all very much able to have our own backs. So, no parts in in denying that you care about him?" She cheekily wanted to know and he no longer subdued the urge to throw the report at her.

\--

Two months after Bucky got frozen:

T'Challa stopped in the doorway, too surprised to even keep it from showing on his face while he watched his youngest cousin and youngest family member lounge back in the armchair, her gentle and beautiful voice being carried through the otherwise almost empty room. Her only listener their sleeping friend.

"It's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it."

"You know, I don't know what baffles me more here." He begun in their mothertongue, interrupting her flawless English, startling her out of her calm serenity, "The fact that you read to him or that you read old Russian literature to him."  
"The doctors say he might be able to hear us, so I thought why not entertain him with something else than Naomi's and your bickering for once." Tokomi found her ground again quickly, smiling that sweet angelic smile that he knew to be her true nature most of the time.

T'Challa stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind himself, walking over to the table next to Tokomi, "How long?"  
"Couple of weeks? Usually when you're with the council or when I couldn't sleep. This the fourth book." She turned shy in the end, ducking her face away from his eyes, but he smiled and reached out a hand to stroke through her hair once.  
"Well, don't let me interrupt you. I could use the distraction," he grumbled and walked over to the windows, settling down with his back against them and closing his eyes when he felt the afternoon sun warm his skin even through the glass.

Tokomi picked up right where she had stopped in the next moment and he let her voice calm the approaching headache, he now understood what his father had meant with needing an escape before he throttled the council with his bare hands. One by one.

But he pushed those thoughts away, didn't want to bring this kind of negativity into the one room in the palace where peacefulness was strongest. Bucky didn't deserve to be assaulted with any more stubborn men fighting over their own egos, he deserved peace and the best T'Challa could give him.

And where had that thought come from?

\--

Three months after Bucky got frozen:

If Naomi had to take a guess, she would say that the books were coming from her sister, online shopping was Tokomi's greatest weakness when it came to books, but only a week after the first biography had turned up, they were all reading it. And suddenly more books appeared and for a while, it seemed T'Challa's hand were incapable of holding anything that hadn't in any form or way to do with one Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes.

It was adorable, in the creepy kind of way, how his interest in their guest grew from wanting to protect a hunted man who needed help more than a trial and a prison cell to wanting to get to know the man who had somehow become his friend in only a few days.

Today, she walked into the medical wing's quietest room with a bandaged wrist and a bandaid over her nose, and found T'Challa lying on the ground in the sun like the big cat he truly was. Reading in the heavy tome about the Howling Commandos that Steve Rogers had suggested to Tokomi, whose biweekly phone calls with Sam Wilson were another interesting development.

"Aren't you supposed to prepare for the call that General threatened you with?" She wanted to know as a greeting but he waved her question away, not taking his eyes off the lines.  
"Got Stark to back me up, nothing to worry about, Barnes is safe. No one has any idea where Rogers and Wilson are. I don't even know where Barton and Romanov ended up, no one will get close to Shuri and Miss Maximoff without losing their head and some limbs for even thinking about trying." He spoke without really paying attention to it and Naomi grinned.

He was the most dangerous when quiet and calm, and she had no doubt at all that no one would ever get to Barnes again without T'Challa having a say in it.  
"Well, then, read me something about Sleeping Beauty." She demanded and sat down in the armchair.

"Read me something what?"

"Read me something, please."

\--

Four months after Bucky got frozen:

"And so I told him to take his goddamn moral lectures, stick them to his ass and fly right off with them, to not come back until he has finally come to the realization that I am not my father." T'Challa paced in front of the windows and let the rant fly out of him, speaking in English as always once he had slipped into Bucky's room.

"Maybe my sister is right, maybe I should really look to it that the council finds a new generation of members as well. You know, that's the part they never tell you about being king. Especially not your own father in preparation for you to become king yourself one day. It's all about responsibilities, about diplomacy, and doing right by your people, and never forget who you are inside, stay true to what you are. But dealing with stubborn old people?"

He huffed and dragged a hand through his hair, making another sharp turn. It was dark outside, already night, but he had spent the entire day arguing with the council over trade treaties and hadn't been able to calm down enough afterwards to even think about going to bed, despite how late it was and despite how early he had to be up the next morning to greet the French ambassador.

"No one teaches you how to deal with old people, because no one knows why. I'm all for respecting our history and where we come from, I value our traditions very highly, but we still need to realize in what kind of world we are living in now. Old people. Everyone just bites through it, because old people suck. Present company excluded. Fuck, I just want to get drunk or do something stupid, just because." He was whining, on a very high level of personal problems. Whining about his stupid problems to a guy who was frozen because his own mind was compromised. Well done, T'Challa, well done.

Groaning he stopped pacing and dropped his head against the window closest to him.

"Tomorrow," he spoke to himself and the man who couldn't respond, "Tomorrow after the french delegation is gone, I'm gonna come here with the most expensive bottle of Whiskey I can find in this palace and forget for one night that I'm king now, and no longer a prince."

A few hours later, as the sun rose and the palace woke up for a busy day with foreign guests, it was Tokomi who walked down to the medical wing with calm steps while the rest of the royal household was sent into a frenzy when their king couldn't be found in his chambers. And she smiled when she stepped into the quiet room, watching her cousin sleep peacefully in the armchair in the corner. 

\--

Six months after Bucky got frozen:

"Stop bloody cheating, Mimi," was the first thing he heard when he opened the door to Bucky's room, on the ground before the cryo chamber, Tokomi and Naomi were lying on their stomachs, card game between them.  
"I'm not cheating, I'm just being creative." Naomi protested and T'Challa chose to intercept before they could start screaming, pulling off his jacket, he let it drop over Naomi's head.

"Hey!" Tokomi smiled and scrambled to her feet while her sister still huffed and struggled to get out from under his jacket, "You're back early, we didn't expect you until tomorrow."  
"Took an earlier flight, needed to come home," he explained and sighed when Tokomi's quick fingers tugged the tie loose and then off completely, feeling like he could breathe again.  
"Everything okay?" Naomi wanted to know, sitting up and crossing her legs, and he was quick to nod before they could worry.

"The conference went good, just long and stressful. I'm glad to be home again. Is that a couch?" He questioned and blinked at the blue couch that was standing right next to the armchair but even more in the light of the sun when it wasn't nighttime.  
"Yeah, we thought two months of sleeping in an armchair was enough torture for your back, you're not getting any younger." Naomi answered and Tokomi quickly hid her grin behind a raised hand when he glanced her way, but he was too tired to argue about it anymore.

"You're right, it was getting uncomfortable." He said and didn't miss the smirk his counsins exchanged as he moved over to fall down upon the couch, face first into the pillows, breathing out deep and long when he felt the tension bleeding out of his muscles.

"There are new postcards, and Sam called earlier." Tokomi spoke up again and he could hear her sitting down again, someone picked up the cards and went to mix then.  
"Where are they now?" He asked, honestly curious, rolling to his side he got comfortable and watched how both women went for another round of their game.  
"St.Petersburg, apparently Rogers been hogging the State Hermitage. Sam called because he was running out of ideas on how to get him out of there." Naomi reported and then scowled when her younger sister won the first round.

"Anything happen here while I was gone?" He wanted to know next, eyes already falling shut, the flight from New York had been long, and maybe he regretted a little to not have taken Tony up on his offer to stay for the night, but T'Challa knew that he could only truly relax at home.

And home was Wakanda. Home was the palace he had grown up in. 

Home was this peculiar little room in the medical wing.

"Nope," it came from two mouths at the same time and usually he would have found that alarming but the couch was so comfortable it lulled him right to sleep.

\--  
9 months after Bucky got frozen:

"There is fun and then there is being bullied by a room full of beautiful women." T'Challa groaned when Shuri crushed all his hopes for a good word on the board again, "I feel discriminated, am I being discriminated?"  
"No." Four voices responded at once and T'Challa flinched upon the synchronicity in them, it had been a very bad idea to let Tokomi and Naomi go off for a whole month to visit his sister and Wanda Maximoff in Johannesburg, a really bad idea. Who knew what kind of deals and alliances they had built. 

With each other.

Against him probably.

Wanda especially looked completely at ease, so much better than when he had last seen her, smiling, almost beaming from the inside, so relaxed, clearly comfortable in her own skin now.

"I hate all of you. I'm pretty sure there is a rule somewhere that you can't let the king lose at Scrabble." He muttered more to himself than to them but Shuri still elbowed him gently.  
"I'm quite sure there is a rule saying exactly the contrary, letting him lose to keep him grounded, brother of mine." He glared at the all knowing smirk on her face and then stuck his tongue out at her in a truly childish reaction.

"Next council session, I'm gonna make it one. We're out of fruits," he pointed out at the end of his complaint when his hand came up empty from the bowl sitting between Tokomi and him, sitting as they all were on the ground around the board. The cryo chamber included in their little circle like a non participating fifth member.  
"I'm gonna get some," Naomi volunteered and T'Challa nodded, though he totally knew she was only going up her ass because the new maid in the kitchen had caught her eye.  
"I'm coming with you, gonna get us some wine. Tokomi, wanna come with me?" Shury stood up as well and suddenly he was all alone with Wanda.

"Well, " he started up slowly, "That just had to be the worst conceiled attempt at giving you time alone with me in like ever." He pointed out drily but the young women sitting across from him smiled, "Anything I can do for you? Now that the insufferable women in my life gave you the room." Wanda was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking about how to voice what was on her mind and when her eyes flickered over to Bucky more than once, T'Challa couldn't help but tense.

But with every word she then spoke, relief was falling from his shoulders and filled his heart with joy.

"He can hear us." Wanda started and T'Challa snapped his head over to Bucky, "I can't be sure of how much he really understands or processes, my powers cannot go that deep, but he can hear us. He recognizes your voices, and I think he likes them."  
"So, he is at peace? No pain, no discomfort?" He sounded probably a little too concerned and too invested, but fuck it, the girl had spent enough time with his sister already, as if he still had any dignity left then.

"Yes, he is at peace."

Some minutes later when the three others stormed back into the room, T'Challa was half lost in thought, eyes set upon the peaceful face of the man he had barely been friends with for a few days before he had said a temporary goodbye. And now he could already barely wait for the day when he could truly find out who Bucky Barnes was now, who his friend was like without a war at his back.

"Did you tell him just how much Barnes likes his voice?" Naomi set the bowl of fresh fruit down with a shiteating grin as his eyes snapped towards her, Wanda flushed all red and gaped at her.  
"Naomi!" She called out and the two started to bicker while T'Challa found his heart speeding up and his thoughts taking a tumble into dangerous and strange waters.

"It makes him feel safe!" Wanda stuttered awkwardly and embarassed while Naomi, Shuri and Tokomi giggled, "And I don't think there is anything wrong with that." And the look that all four of them then shared, that one freaked him out more than his own feelings ever could.

\--

11 months after Bucky got frozen:

He had been practising his speech for the national holiday celebration for two hours already, turning circles in the light filled room while nurses went about their daily check ups and Tokomi quietly read on the couch, watching him with amused eyes from time to time.

Among their trio, what T'Challa affectionally had started to call the 'little sister squad' a few years ago, Tokomi was the calmest, the quietest. While Naomi and Shuri were loud and charming and wrapped everyone their little fingers with their smiles, their laughs and the special way they had with people, she was the one who listened. Like that, it was most often her who saw just a little more than energy loaden sister and cousin.

Sometimes it was the little things that told more stories than big gestures ever could.

And with her kingly cousin little gestures spoke more of what was going on in his head and his heart than his words did.

So it hadn't come as shocking to her as it had been for Naomi and Shuri when they had realized just how much peace T'Challa found in Bucky Barnes's room, in the presence of a man sleeping until they could save him from the triggers in his head. The way he relaxed the instant he stepped one foot inside this peaceful sanctuary, no matter how the day had been, how stressful meetings had been, one step inside this room and T'Challa lost all tension.

Relaxed right down to the core within seconds.

You had to be blind not to see what that meant.

Naomi might find it creepy, but Tokomi didn't, she found it amazing, wonderful and romantic even, how their cousin's heart had been stolen by a man he had only known for a couple of days before any interaction had become one sided. 

"And bla bla bla, thank the council members, try to sound sincere, wave, and out." T'Challa ended his speech and flopped down on the couch next to her, making a grand gesture by throwing the papers away from him, watching them float to the ground, creating a big mess, "Read to me."  
"Read to me what, your Majesty?" Tokomi wanted to know quietly, raising the book higher when T'Challa let himself fall to own side, resting his head on her thighs.

"Read to me, please?"

"Over the seven jewelled hills, beyond the seventh fall, in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs, dwells Snow White, fairest of them all." Tokomi began and then grinned when T'Challa first tried to fight it but then started laughing, whole body shaking with it, she joined in easily.

"I thought it fits," she giggled once they had gotten themselves together again, "And will you be his prince kissing him awake?" She got a cushion to the face for it but T'Challa at least didn't evade the question with arguments anymore.  
"He certainly deserves to live happily ever after." He said after a short moment and then snorted and started laughing all over again.

\--

Twelve months, three weeks, five days and eight hours since Bucky got frozen:

He was in his office for once, shifting through emails and mail with only half an interest, he had had a morning filled with meetings and video calls and honestly was just counting the hours until he was done for the day. He didn't necessarily like the office part of being king, he got too distracted and his thoughts tended to stray far off course when he was reading reports and treaties.

Lately, more than ever, he kept on going back to Bucky.

It had been more than a year now since the man had made the choice to sleep until they found a way to get the triggers out of his head, until they could make sure no one would ever be able to compromise him ever again. He had admired it, the ease with which that decision had come, how badly Bucky had wanted to make things right, how badly he had wanted to be safe, for himself and the people he cared about.

Steve and Sam were still travelling through the world, being free and being no one, just two men wanting to experience what the world was like. T'Challa would have envied them for this freedom a little bit, especially once Stark had made sure that no one would keep looking for them, but he loved Wakanda too much, he loved his home too much and the people and friends he had here.

And somehow, he knew that being here and being among the first to know that they would be able to help Barnes, it meant a lot more. He had seen the world, he had been free and young and able to travel everywhere, he knew following your heart was worth it.

From Wanda, who clearly enjoyed his sister's friendship and their life in South Africa too much to even think about going anywhere else at the moment, he knew that Romanov was safe and happy, that Barton and her and their family had found a safe place to live, to be just that, a family, no superheroes, no spys and assassins.

Stark and him talked sometimes, usually in preparations of discussions with Secretary Ross, but sometimes they found themselves talking about other things as well. He never asked about Steve, or Bucky, or Wanda or anyone else, though T'Challa had the rising suspicion he knew what was going on. Maybe Steve had reached out to him again, maybe it was something else. They were all healing, slowly but steadily.

And hopefully they would be able to give Bucky just that as well, a chance to heal.

He was so caught in his thoughts that he didn't hear the steps running towards his half open office door until Naomi and Tokomi both crashed inside, door slamming into the wall with a bang.  
"You have to come with us!" It was Tokomi of all people who was yelling, eyes wide with pure joy and excitement as her sister was already rushing to side and pulling him out of the chair, "Now, Chall, you have to come with us, right now."

"What? What's going on?" He wanted to know, stumbling over Naomi's leg as she bounced on her feet next to him, clutching his arms, grinning with almost all teeth showing, "What happened?"  
"Just come with us!" Tokomi begged, reaching for his other arm and together with a still speechless Naomi dragged him out of the office, starting to run the moment they were in the corridor and T'Challa could only try and keep up.

His head was desperately working around figuring out what could have possibly happened while they raced down stairs and corridors and he didn't see the familiar walls of the medical wing until they were already one corridor in. He froze on his feet, right there in the middle of the main corridor and Tokomi and Naomi skidded to a halt in the next moment, turning around to grin at him. 

"No," he gasped, heart stopping for just a split second and then starting up again with a storm of emotions crashing through him, Naomi and Tokomi if possible only grinned brighter, "Oh my god." Pushing right past them then, he took off again with a whole different level of speed in his feet, turning corners and pushing open doors with a blind and singleminded focus.

The doctors and scientists in the lab a story down from the floor that housed Bucky's sleeping chamber, they all jumped when he appeared in the room like a landslide during a thunderstorm instead of the dignified and usually collected king they were used to. But one woman, the head of the neurosurgical department, she had mercy, smiling politely, she waited until Tokomi and Naomi stumbled to a stop on either side of him, already sliding their hands around his arms.

"My king, I see the Ladies Naomi and Tokomi have found you," she started and T'Challa bit his tongue to push for the words he wanted to hear, "We have found the solution to Sergeant Barnes situation."

And thanks for cousins, because his knees did in fact grow weak for a second.

"Thank you," it fell from his lips in a sigh that showed just how much happiness was bursting through his veins, they had found it, they had the solution, they could help him, finally help him. They could give this amazing man his life back, the life he deserved, "Please prepare everything you need, I will make the necessary calls and we will start the moment Mister Rogers is back in the palace." The doctors and scientists nodded at him and then went right back to work and T'Challa pulled Naomi and Tokomi back into the corridor.

Hugging both of them at least twice before they rushed off together, up one story and into the room where Bucky was yet sleeping. Yet. Not long anymore. He pulled out his phone while Naomi and Tokomi chatted over each other and to a man who couldn't reply yet. Yet. Not long anymore.

Bucky would be back.

"Steve? How quickly can you be back in Wakanda?"

And the scream of pure joy that came over the line then, it was everything.

\--

Thirteen months after Bucky got frozen:

"Can I still do anything for you, your Highness?" The young nurse asked, seemingly overwhelmed in the presence of her king, the royal patient everyone in the palace loved already and the former Captain America.  
"No, thank you, dear. We are all set." T'Challa assured her with a smile and then watched how she flittered off, if the doctor's approximation was correct, then this had been the last check-up before the big moment would come.

He sat back down again, somehow physically calm while his head was jumping in joy and singing in pure happiness, back against the palm tree. The king's personal and most importantly private garden was set in a very secluded corner of the palace grounds, completely sheltered from all sides by nature, a round place of paradise with the sun shining down from a today cloudless sky.

Even the weather loved Bucky.

It was amazingly pleasantly warm, just a very light breeze around, but even that brought only a warm breathe of wind against skin and hair. They had brought a still sleeping Bucky out of the medical wing three hours ago, and now he was lying on a lounge chair in the middle of the garden, surrounded by the silence of nature and the familiar voices of his friends. The sun warmed his skin, way more slowly than the doctors would have been able to in the medical wing but for someone with his history, this was the better way to wake up to a whole new life.

The birds were chirping, melodies over melodies, Naomi had already been up twice to chase the cheeky little group of monkeys away from their picnic table, a little distance from them. Sam, Tokomi and her were chatting and playing some games, trying in vain to not look too observing.

"I want to thank you again, bringing him outside here, that was a good idea." Steve spoke up when they were alone, from where he was sitting on the ground next to Bucky's head. And the difference in the way he was holding himself, it was still mind blowing, the kindness that had crept back into his very being, the hope and positivity that went out from him. This was the Steve Rogers the books had written about.

"From what little he told me, I thought it important to see something else but labs and white ceilings for a change." T'Challa explained, eyes set on the still motionless face that was slowly filling with color again, "How is he doing?"  
"Warming up," the blond super soldier told him, fingers smoothing a no longer wet strand of hair back from Bucky's face, not far from where they had made the incision into his skin yesterday, the scar was already fading again, "It shouldn't be long anymore now."

They briefly looked up when Naomi screeched once more, going after the monkey who had happily claimed his banana and was whooping in joy.

T'Challa shifted his hand, the one resting next to one of Bucky's hips, just like Steve was doing it on his other way, when he felt it, the smallest of movements.  
"Steve." He let his voice carry the meaning, and then smiled when Steve curled both his hands around the now more obviously twitching hand of his oldest friend. He wasn't jealous, way too grateful for the chance to share this moment that Steve could have easily and rightfully claimed to have alone for himself.

\--

The first thing he got aware of was the warmth on his skin, a warmth that settled itself right beneath it into his blood, warmed his body from the inside and the outside. The feeling in his hand and limbs came next, the realization that he wasn't in a bed or on a gurney, instead he was lying propped up in something very comfortable. Then came the noises, birds singing and chirping, moving through the trees, a waterfall in the distance, thundering down a cliff, leaves rustling in the wind.

A warm breeze blowing over his skin.

And voices. Laughter in the distance, softer ones speaking so close. Speaking to him.

Pressure on his hand, fingers squeeing, curling around his hand, holding tight. And he got his hand to squeeze back.

"There you go, Buck, that's it. Look at you, you're even smiling."

Steve.

"There are some people around who want to see those blue eyes, Bucky, don't keep them waiting any longer."

T'Challa.

And then he blinked his eyes open.

The first thing he saw was Steve's face, nearly broken in half with a smile, and every question he could have asked were answered with that one look.  
"Hey," he whispered, gratefully taking a sip of the bottle of water that someone held to his lips, eyes falling shut again for a second as he felt the water smoothing over the itch in his throat, "Thanks." Turning his head slowly to the side, he opened his eyes again, coming face to face with T'Challa, "Thank you," he repeated, but meaning something entirely different. T'Challa nodded.

"Welcome to your new life, Bucky."

\--

One month after Bucky woke up:

"Are you trying to let the shadows swallow you on your own birthday?" Bucky appeared right next to him out of thin air and T'Challa didn't curse himself for the flinch he gave for just a second before he let his eyes wander over that impeccable deep blue suit again. Tokomi had stuffed Bucky into it a couple of hours ago before T'Challa's birthday dinner with way too many guests had started.

"I'm just taking a moment to breathe." He explained and Bucky grinned, having him smile back in return, so easy now, the pure happiness coming from the smaller man it was still intoxicating, even after one month.  
"Does this mean I can kidnap you for a moment and give you my present?" asked in that cheeky tone and blinding smile that had kept T'Challa up more than one night already.

"Why do I even bother with telling people I don't want them spending money on me?" he grouched but and then scowled when Bucky swatted at his side with the new metal arm.  
"For the record, I didn't spend money on it and I think it's very impolite to be prissy about getting presents on your birthday." Bucky told him, smug and cocky and T'Challa snorted out a laugh.

"You're right. I apologize. Take me away." He offered a hand and was still surprised when Bucky grabbed it and pulled him towards the exit of the ballroom. Bucky led him to the library, his nerves flaring up apparently because he got visibly more nervous, T'Challa started wrecking his head on how to comfort him.

"Just...just wait and don't think it's weird." T'Challa wanted to open his mouth and say something to that, but Bucky send him a look and turned the lock on the door. They were alone. Undisturbed. T'Challa felt his brain go blank a little when Bucky shrugged off his jacket and went to unbutton his shirt.

"Okay, woah, wait a second. What are you doing?"

"Well, to be honest, my gift isn't really something I can give you, it's more something I can show you." Bucky explained, his face flushing with a little heat while T'Challa gaped at him.  
"On you?" He somehow managed to press past his lips, no matter how dry his mouth suddenly felt, Bucky nodded, "Okay."

The white dress shirt didn't go completely, Bucky just wriggled out of one sleeve, the left one and then he turned on his side and T'Challa felt his heart stop.

"Oh my..."

Words left him, there was nothing that came to mind to even begin to explain how much this present meant to him.

"Buck..." he tried again, forcing his eyes away from Bucky's upper metal arm to look into his face, spotting the nervousness immediately.  
"I wanted to say thank you. To you, but also to your people and your country, because without Wakanda I might just as well not be here today, might not have gotten a second chance at life." Bucky stumbled through his explaining and T'Challa burned with the need to have him smile again, "Tokomi is the only one who knew, I needed someone to tell me it wouldn't cause a public scandal."

"A scandal?" T'Challa choked out in surprise and then cleared his throat, reaching out with both hands, one turning Bucky's face to himself and the other one being placed over Wakanda's symbol on Bucky's left upper arm. The profile of a head. The head of a Black Panther.

"Bucky, the people love you. Can you even imagine how many times I've been asked if I know if you will leave at some point? If I know what you will do now? One month and they don't ever want to see you leave, and this..." he stroked his thumb over the symbol where once, on the old destroyed arm, the shamed red star had been, "This will mean the world to them. This is the best present I have gotten in years."

"Are you sure?" Bucky whispered, turning his body to stand right in front of him again, smiling, licking his lips and T'Challa felt the hope inside of him nearly become choking, "Because I wasn't done yet. Thank you for giving me a third life, T'Challa."

And then Bucky leaned up and T'Challa met him halfway, completely on instinct, lips melting against another in a sweet kiss. The first of many many to come.

\--

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it, I am planning on writing more post movie oneshots! for this pairing and others!  
> The quotes I used for Tokomi to read out loud are from "Anna Karenina" and "Snow White"


End file.
